If you are a power user of Excel on a Macbook then you will love these shortcuts as they will save you hours of time every month.
1. Navigation
- Quick Navigation:
CMD + arrow keys
Whenever you use CMD + arrow keys your cursor jumps to the last filled piece of the block of data you are currently in. e.g. if you press CMD + Left Arrow, then your cursor will jump to the left side of that block.
- Switch Sheets:
ctrl + Fn + Up/Down
You need to jump across sheets within a single file? No problem, the above shortcut allows you to cycle past sheets without reaching for your mouse.
2. Selection
- Select All:
CMD + a
This shortcut selects the block of data surrounding your cursor. This is a quick way to highlight a big section of data for copy-pasting or formatting. It has one caveat though – if your cursor is outside of a block of data (i.e. in an empty cell), then Excel will select the entire workbook.
- Quick Selection:
CMD + SHIFT + arrow keys
Quick Selection acts almost exactly like Quick Navigation except that it also selects the cells between where your cursor started and where you move.
- Select Row:
SHIFT + SPACE
This shortcut highlights the row where your cursor is. You can use this same shortcut to select multiple rowsas well.
3. Row Operations
- Delete Row:
CMD+—
In order for this shortcut to work, the entire row (or rows) must be selected. If an entire row is not selected, a dialog box will appear allowing you to delete that chunk of cells and shift the other cells to fill the gap instead.
- Add Row:
CMD+SHIFT++
Same as above, make sure the entire row is selected and active if you want to add a row
4. Fill Cells
- Fill Right:
CMD + r
When you have a block of cells selected, Fill Right takes whatever is contained in the left-most cell and spreads it across any cells to the right. This includes numbers, text, formatting, and formulas.
- Fill Down:
CMD + d
Works in a similar way to fill right. When you have a block of cells selected, Fill Right takes whatever is contained in the left-most cell and spreads it across any cells to the right. This includes numbers, text, formatting, and formulas.
Both these shortcuts are immensely useful when building a formula in one cell and trying to apply it across the entire row.
5. Productivity Shortcuts
- Sum:
CMD + SHIFT + tOR⌘ + ⇧ + t
This formula will look for a series of numbers directly above or directly to the left of the active cell and apply a =sum() formula to them.
- Toggle Filters:
CMD + SHIFT + fOR⌘ + ⇧ + f
This shortcut allows you to Toggle filters on the current block of data. This is very useful when you have just added a new column and would like filters to apply to that column as well.
- Paste Special:
CMD + Control + vOR⌘ + ⌃ + v
Paste Special is the power drill for Paste functionality. It gives you a number of useful paste options like Transpose, Validation, and Paste as Values, with the last one being the most useful since it strips off any formatting or formulae.
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